The Unfairground - Part 2
“Oh well, we can’t have that.” Vas tsked innocently, drawing Jacy in close. He found it near impossible to not bend to her every whim. “So I guess it’s better to just give you what you want now, isn’t it.” He said leaning in to press his lips to hers. The kiss went on longer than it should have at such a family-friendly venue and Jacy only pulled back slightly when she had to come up for air. She gave Vas a quick peck on the lips before twisting around in his arms until they were facing the same direction. She looked as happy as a new bride, standing there cradled in his arms. They had not talk over or openly considered such long term matters as indeed so much of their romantic affinity seemed to manifest out of nowhere. It was an incredibly current development and Jacy loved being swept along by all those feelings. The two of them had discussed her practiced quarantine of those feelings from her commitments as a Companion, but in her experience, trusting, satisfied men grew possessive and jealous quite easily when she was intimate with another man and were only slightly less hasty to turn green-eyed when it was with a woman. She tensed and looked straight ahead as she broached the subject. “Now that you've shown you really do care, we can have our picture drawn. It will be fun and give you something to look at while I'm away tomorrow, with a client.” “I have to find a nice place to hang it then.” Vas said still a little giddy, his arm lazily around her waist. Jacy softened and reclined in his arms. “Hey Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.” Gill screamed as the Drop Tower fell and he and Haddie went plummeting down towards the ground. Vas waved at the pair. “They sure as hell look thrilled.” He was glad they got to be kids for a day and the fair was pretty nice. “The fairs were never this cool when I was a kid.” She gave him a fake punch on the arm. It was a real punch for her, but as she wasn’t much of a brawler, Vas assumed it was a fake punch. “Are you calling me old?! The fairs were most definitely this cool and cooler when I was a little girl running around from ride to ride. And as you’re only six years younger than me, they can’t have changed that much.” But the truth was, Jacy had only attended one carnival as a child and was punished by her mother so thoroughly afterwards that she never snuck out of the house again. Her memories of that fair were that it was spectacular and world changing, but she wasn’t sure why she chose to imply an exaggerated attendance or lie about it to Vas. Back on the ground Haddie stalked off towards the game stalls and lined up at a large platform set up with peashooter rifles. The sharp ping of pellets hitting targets could be heard as the participants put their aim to the test. You had to hit the tin targets dead centre to knock them over or they would spring back up and given that they were all shaped like ducks they would quack at you. Gill watched as the pellets pinged and the ducks quacked and started to frown. It was clear that the game was rigged to only allow three targets down and then the others would quack their way back up right. He heaved a sigh and placed a hand on Haddies shoulder. “It's a fix Haddie, let's go.” She looked confused for a moment until the next quack caused her to look up and with Gill she began to study the game as they got closer to their turn. Finally as it was almost their go Haddie grabbed Gills arm and signalled that he should take his go before darting off to the right. “Wait, what?” he tried calling after her. “Next up lad, you having a go?” Gill looked up at the stall keeper and glanced after Haddie once more before shrugging. “Sure why not.” he snatched the pea shooter and handed over the cash. “Seven down for the grand prize.” announced the lad; a tall brown haired guy with bright green eyes. “And what's the grand prize?” Gill asked as *ping* he aced the first shot. “That would be the mini jukebox up there.” The lad pointed toward a small replica of an old Earth jukebox sitting on a shelf over the targets. “Shiny.” Gill replied as *ping* the second target went down. “Nice shot there lad.” as *ping* the third went down. The man began to grin now as he knew what was coming next. Gill caught a flash of red hair in the shadows of the stand and returned the grin as he carefully took aim. *ping* *ping* *ping* Nobody was grinning now and the green eyed Carney was looking worriedly between Gill and his targets. “Just one more?” Gill asked. “Aye, but if you might just…” *ping* Gill took out the target to the roar of the crowd. “Well done, lad.” came the forced congratulation from the stall keeper. “If you come back at the end of the day I'll have it boxed up for you.” “No thanks; I'll take it now,” Gill said brightly. Haddie was suddenly at his side grinning like a fool. When the stall keeper looked down at her she bobbed her tongue out causing him to flinch. “Give the lad his prize,” someone called from the crowd. “Now just hold on,” the man protested. “He’s robbing the kids, there; they won fair and square,” joined another. “I ain't robbing nobody,” the man barked as he turned to grab down Gill’s prize. “Thanks,” Gill said as he handed it over, then to Haddie, “Right, let's go find Vas.” ~~~ Jacy was proving to be a hell of a distraction. It was hard trying to keep one eye on the kids and meet the demands of Jacy’s expert lips. Vas was not by any stretch a Cassanova given he had skipped entirely the normal period of sexual exploration normal people go through, all in favor of a gun and a monk-like existence. Jacy though seemed more than forgiving and if anything Vas was good at taking instruction. The Kids found Vas and Jacy untangling themselves from the interior of a photo booth. They ran up to them keen to show off their winnings from the stall. “Oh … Hey!” Vas said feeling like he had been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar as he detanged himself from Jacy. “Wow! You actually won something! How’d you pull that off?” Vas said with an impressed snort. “It was a total con, but Haddie snuck behind the rig and evened the odds.” “The goal isn’t always to win the prize, you two. You are intended only to enjoy yourselves during the game. Although, I can see Haddie enjoyed herself immensely as indeed she still is. Cheating is still cheating whether it evens the odds or not.” It was impossible to tell from her tone whether Jacy was admonishing the children or condoning their behaviour. “What? We didn't cheat! They were cheating. Haddie just taught them a lesson.” “Sound more like they outsmarted the con if you ask me.” Vas said not entirely disagreeing with Jacy but definitely not admonishing the children's actions. “How can you enjoy a game you don’t stand a chance of winning?” He pointed out. The fact was their ‘verse wasn’t built of fairness and more often than not if you didn’t take care of you and your own no one else was going to. He mussed Gill’s hair. “‘S’far as I’m concerned you two just outsmarted ‘em.” They took a shortcut between two large show tents only to find a group of fairground workers gathering at the other end. Gill recognized one of them as the guy from the shooting stall and whispered to Vas. They tried to turn back only to find more men walking into the lane behind them. “Were heading out; ain’t no re-” Vas started, trying to be nice before the stall keeper cut him off. “Can’t say as I give a shit.” the stall keeper replied. “Kids stole from us and now the boss wants a little chat with them. If you are responsible for them as you say then he’ll be wanting a chat with you too.” Gill piped in, “It's just a music player; you can have it back.” “Not the point lad. It's the principle, besides which I lost about an hour’s business with the scene you caused getting the crowd involved like that.” “I didn't get anyone involved; they just saw…” Jacy laid a hand on Vas’ forearm and stepped in front of him. “Carnivals exist for the enjoyment of the people. We know the games of chance are tilted toward the favor of the proprietor, and we play them anyways. You are allowed to continue your charade with the happy consent of the very people you’ve cheated. But the moment someone fires off a few lucky shots you accuse them of defrauding you? Or are you telling me the game is rigged to make losing a certainty? If that’s the case, I’d like you to refund the coin the boy spent in the playing. We will keep the music player and be on our way with your apologies for having disturbed our evening.” “Enough. You following us or we sort things here and now in a more painful manner.” “That a threat?” Vas scoffed stepping forward toward the man leading this carnie lynch squad. “S’far as I see it you were running a scam, your man got lazy and got outsmarted by a couple of kids. So tell me how that is our problem?” He asked squaring himself, blue eyes starting to narrow. By this point Jacy had accepted that there was not going to be any talking their way out of things. At least not with this crew. They’d have to follow this ruffian carnie or violence would break out. Even if Gill & Haddie were in the right, which on some level Jacy knew the kids were not, an outbreak of violence at the fair may illicit far worse legal recourse than whatever little slap on the hand these men’s boss wished to administer. Afterall, this was a fair, not some high security facility that they’d just stumbled upon. What was the worst that could happen? “Perhaps we will walk with you a distance and speak with your employer. Are you at liberty to guarantee our safety and a quick release? We have no intentions of spending long in the sorting out of this trivial thing.” Jacy made a show of examining her painted nails while she haggled with the men. The stall keeper shrugged, “I guarantee that you’ll be a damn site safer than if you don't follow along, and that's about the extent of it.” Seeing that they were not going to get much more in the way of assurances from the pissed off carnies they decided to follow. The rides and stalls that just moments before had seemed like a wonder to the senses now seemed ominous and unfriendly as the fairground staff glared after the group that had fallen foul of their employer. It was clear that the fun was over for today.